A non Catholic view: I am an evangelical protestant and one of the churches I attend has dancers.
There is no applause and the dancers do not perform - it’s more like a celebration where everyone can sing and the dance is hebrew inspired with messianic type music and worship, not free form. The dancers are mostly older women so that there is no lasciviousness involved and none of them are professionals. They dance off to the side so they are not the focal point.
I never liked “performances” in service, to the place where I don’t even like choirs and soloists and such. I often am asked to sing solos myself, and like to place myself behind the piano where I can’t really be seen well so people can just let the lyrics and music lead them into worship. I like to sing scripture based music.
A mass is not a protestant service, we don’t view that transubstantiation occurs during it, and we have a totally different view of the church building and body of Christ. We don’t even have a functional altar. I don’t know why anyone would have dance during a mass.
I’ve been to several protestant churches where there is no music at all, as it is “worldly”.
Lastly I’ll say this. In the evangelical Christian view, a building is not holy and the church is the believers, not the building. We don’t come to be served, but rather, we call it a service because we come to serve God.
A mass is not a protestant service, we don’t view that transubstantiation occurs during it, and we have a totally different view of the church building and body of Christ. We don’t even have a functional altar.
You are absolutely correct in saying that a Mass is not a protestant service, as it would no longer be a Mass. Older Catholic Church structures date back to a time before nationalized education when most people were illiterate and the printing press had yet to be invented. You are probably familiar with the expression: "A picture is worth a thousand words." That is why the older Catholic Churches were decorated with friezes, carvings and stained glass windows, to tell the story of Salvation through our Lord, Jesus Christ. They were also designed to 'elevate' the minds and hearts of those in attendance to the Kingdom of God; hence the gold and silver ornamentation.
Transubstantiation occurs because our Lord said so (John 6:53 - 58). In fact, there is an unbroken line of descendency in the priesthood that dates back 2000 years to the Last Supper. Since the apostles did not dance on that solemn occasion, neither is appropriate for us to do so today. Each celebration of Mass celebrates the transcendance of our Lord into the Eucharist - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Obviously, it is a moment of great reverance.
In the evangelical Christian view, a building is not holy and the church is the believers, not the building. We don’t come to be served, but rather, we call it a service because we come to serve God.
Precisely! This is also true in the Catholic Church. We gather as a community to worship Him who humbled Himself to become man and redeem us. Our responsibility is to continue the mission He began by spreading the good news throughout the world.